Human Addiction: Career, Drugs, Food - the Obsession with Happiness...

Fact: everyone has an addiction of some form. Of course, it might be easy to see that in a teenager through his abuse of alcohol/drugs/whatever else, but not as obvious in a case of a moderate career-minded adult or a small school child. But in truth, by the time we start going to school we are already becoming increasingly addicted to the outside environment; and the biggest of these addictions is school. Take the kids out of school and they suddenly lose the purpose--the constant fulfillment of a dream end-result that will bring everlasting happiness.

The one difference about kids, however, is that they have a vast amount of easily accessible outside world around them, which, in turn, serves as a constant supply of varrying sensational pleasure and information - an addiction in itself.

However, for adults the vast presence of information/objects/tastes soon tends to become dull and hence the need to find something (or someone) particular and permament. And since not even that "particular something" is permament in its original form (or experience), we substitute the sensation with our own internal projections of the original experience. All could be well, but since outside influence can affect the physical presence of that something (we take a trip to another country, our partner leaves us, etc...), the internal projection is only as permament as one's surrounding environment.

Does it mean that there is no addiction for an overly enlighten Buddhist? No, people must have an addiction to exist! People depend on permamence; But in Buddhism the person finds an addiction through a belief in internal feelings; this belief, in turn, leads him to greater understanding of self and buddhism as a religion--hence "religion" is not the addiction in itself (unlike with some other religions, where the religion is the primary base). As a consequence, Buddhism only serves to shine light on our personal observation of internal self (not inspite of our primary goals/beliefs).